Chairman of Model Power passed away.

[3rdrail]

Official press release from Model Power:

On October 27, 2007, a quiet pioneer of the hobby industry passed away. Michael Tager, chairman of Model Power, died at the age of eighty-five. While many in the industry knew of him; fewer still knew him well. He preferred to remain in the background of the company he founded more than thirty years ago. His two sons, Matthew, President of Model Power, and Josh, Vice President, were the face of the company to the industry. Most recently they were joined in the business by Matthew's sons, Jonathan, as Vice President of Sales, and Adam, as Vice President of Production.

Mike Tager wasn't always the quiet one. He began his career in the late fifties and the sixties as a dynamic young sales representative for Aurora, Matchbox, and Arrow Handicraft. When he took on sales responsibility for two start up electric train companies, Atlas Tool and Athearn, he grew their sales by a factor of ten. Mike, Steve Shaffen, and Irv Athearn were the three amigos, traveling the globe for fun and profit. The only drawback was that Shaffen and Tager were subject to the constant smell from Athearn's ever-present cigars. Worse yet, each were subject to the wry humor of the other two.

Among other things, Tager was an innovator. He pioneered the first ready to run HO electric train set combining Athearn locos, Atlas track and KF power packs. He was instrumental in eliminating the rubber band drive on Athearn's locos. He brought the first built up building models into the United States.

When he started Model Power in the seventies, Tager was able to put his extensive travel experience to work. He leveraged his contacts with Trix, Roco, Mehano, Sanda Kan, SKI Industrial, Faller, Tri-Ang, Thomas Salter and Hasegawa to provide Model Power with notable, quality products. While most well known for trains and accessories in HO, N, and some G gauge, Mike, along with his son Matt, diversified into the die-cast model airplane field, creating the popular Postage Stamp series, that now features 150 different scale planes.

Enthusiasts in the hobby industry are known for their passion. For Mike Tager, his passion stemmed from a love of immediate family that extended to touch each and every person in Model Power. Kind, patient, understanding, a great sounding board for an idea or a problem, he will be missed in a quiet and personal way by those who knew him. For those who knew of him, perhaps his story may serve as inspiration. He is survived by his wife, Judith, three sons, and eight grandchildren.

[brokemoto]

Sorry to learn that.

Requiescat in pacem.

[atsf_arizona]

Thx for the info.

It's amazing to learn for the first time, the story of the Mr. Tager and all he and his compatriots did to build the foundations for the manufactured products that we have today.   To Mr. Tager's family, my condolences in this time of their loss.   My gratitude for all that he contributed to this hobby, for all of us.

[up1950s]

Will this sad passing cause us any production concerns in the future ?

[wm3798]

Time marches on.  Perhaps the sharks at Walthers and Horizon are already circling...

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I doubt it, Lee.

The rest of the family seems to be pretty gung-ho.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I know for a fact that John is cery commited to the company.

[tom mann]

I really hope they solve some of the issues with their steam.  They have a good thing going, just not quite 100% there.

[Mark5]

sad news.

Model Power has made some big strides. Whereas once they were merely recycling tooling initiated by others this decade they jumped into the bringing out new tooling game. The newer models are much better than the mehano and minitrix stuff they brought us in the past.